Coarticulation Method for Audio-Visual Text-To-Speech Synthesis

1. A method of generating a noise-producing entity, the method comprising: receiving a stimulus representing data that the noise-producing entity will track; associating the stimulus with at least one phoneme or phoneme sequence recalling all mouth parameters corresponding to the associated at least one phoneme or phoneme sequence; selecting a parameter set from an animation library, the parameter set representing frame segments, the selected parameter set corresponding to the recalled mouth parameters; and outputting speech associated with the stimulus in synchronization with outputting frame segments associated with the parameter set.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein outputting frame segment further comprises overlaying frame segments on a larger entity to synthesize a whole animated image.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stimulus is text.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the speech is output using a phoneme transcript stored in a coarticulation library.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is iteratively applied to phoneme sequences in the stimulus to form a complete animation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameter set is associated with images of at least three concatenated phonemes which correspond to the stimulus.

7. A system for generating a noise-producing entity, the system comprising: a processor; a module configured to control the processor to receive a stimulus representing data that the noise-producing entity will track; a module configured to control the processor to associate the stimulus with at least one phoneme or phoneme sequence; a module configured to control the processor to recall all mouth parameters corresponding to the associated at least one phoneme or phoneme sequence; a module configured to control the processor to select a parameter set from an animation library, the parameter set representing frame segments, the selected parameter set corresponding to the recalled mouth parameters; and a module configured to control the processor to output speech associated with the stimulus in synchronization with outputting frame segments associated with the parameter set.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the module configured to control the processor to output frame segments further overlays frame segments on a larger entity to synthesize a whole animated image.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the stimulus is text.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the speech is output using a phoneme transcript stored in a coarticulation library.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the modules configured to control the processor iteratively operate on phoneme sequences in the stimulus to form a complete animation.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the parameter set is associated with images of at least three concatenated phonemes which correspond to the stimulus.

13. A computer-readable medium storing instructions for controlling a computing device to generate a noise-producing entity, the instructions comprising: receiving a stimulus representing data that the noise-producing entity will track; associating the stimulus with at least one phoneme or phoneme sequence recalling all mouth parameters corresponding to the associated at least one phoneme or phoneme sequence; selecting a parameter set from an animation library, the parameter set representing frame segments, the selected parameter set corresponding to the recalled mouth parameters; and outputting speech associated with the stimulus in synchronization with outputting frame segments associated with the parameter set.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein outputting frame segment further comprises overlaying frame segments on a larger entity to synthesize a whole animated image.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the stimulus is text.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the speech is output using a phoneme transcript stored in a coarticulation library.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions are iteratively applied to phoneme sequences in the stimulus to form a complete animation.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the parameter set is associated with images of at least three concatenated phonemes which correspond to the stimulus.